Emergency care

Emergency care is the term used within the NHS to describe
seriously ill or injured patients, who require emergency help.

This covers patients suffering from an immediately
life-threatenging condition e.g:

serious trauma, after a Road Traffic Collision for example

cardiac arrest

severe breathing difficulties

serious, uncontrolled bleeding

unconscious

Patients who dial 999 with an immediately life-threatening
condition, would be categoried as requiring the most urgent level
of ambulance response. Pre-arrival advice would often also be
provided over the phone by the Emergency Advisor in the
Emergency Operations Centre, prior to the arrival of the ambulance
clinician.

Analysis of our 999 calls shows that annually less than 10 per
cent of the 999 calls we receive fall into this category on
average.

SECAmb has worked hard to improve the level of care provided to
these patients through the development of the Critical Care Paramedic (CCP) role.

Although, sometime based in ambulances, CCPs also work extremely
closely with the Air Ambulances across
the region. Seriously ill patients or those suffering from severe
trauma may be taken directly to a specialist unit, depending on
their condition or may require subsequent transfer from a local
hospital to a more specialist centre.